SEATTLE (September 5, 2013) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting applications for the latest of its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, a ground-breaking grant program encouraging bold approaches aimed at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. The simple, online, two-page application is open to creative thinkers from any discipline or any organization.

"We continue to push for a regular stream of fresh ideas to help overcome persistent health and development challenges,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery & Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Innovative thinking fuels the progress needed to overcome obstacles the world faces to pull people out of poverty.”

Grand Challenges Explorations encourages proposals from individuals or groups with anything to offer, from anywhere in the world, and seeks to uncover cross-discipline approaches. Since its launch in 2008, the program has funded more than 850 grants in 50 countries.

To learn more about the topics in this round, visit www.grandchallenges.org. Proposals are being accepted through November 12, 2013.

The Gates Foundation and an independent group of reviewers selects the most promising proposals, and grants will be awarded within approximately four months from the proposal submission deadline. Initial grants are $100,000 each. Projects demonstrating potential will have the opportunity to receive additional funding up to $1 million.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.